Friday, August 31, 2012

Ghost Weather: Some facts about the blue moon.
A blue moon is an amazing sight to see. Below are some fun facts about the upcoming blue moon.

Aug. 31 is the last chance to see a so-called "blue moon" for nearly three
years.

The moon reaches its full phase at 9:58 a.m. EDT (1358 GMT) Friday,
marking the second full moon of August (the previous one occurred Aug.
1). Stargazers won't be able to see two full moons in a single month
again until July 2015.

Friday's full moon won't actually be blue, unless a load of dust or ash
in the atmosphere lends it that particular hue from your vantage point.
In any event, blue moons aren't named for their color, and they look like any other full moon in the sky most of the time.

Rather, the term has always been associated with an "extra" full moon.
In the first half of the 20th century, for example, it apparently
referred to the third full moon of a season — spring, summer, winter or fall — that boasted four full moons instead of the usual three.

But that definition was misinterpreted over the years, and today we call the second full moon in a single month a "blue moon."

The phrase "once in a blue moon"
suggests that the celestial phenomenon is exceedingly rare, but that's
not the case. Blue moons come along once every 2.7 years on average, and
sometimes much more frequently. In 1999, for example, blue moons
occurred in both January and March (with no full moon in February).

It takes 29.5 days for the moon to orbit Earth, during which time we
see the satellite go through all of its phases. But all calendar months
(except February) have 30 or 31 days, so occasionally two full moons get
squeezed into a single month.

Astrology and the Full Moon

Astrologically the energy of the full moon works to integrate and
harmonize the contradictions in the self and others. During a full moon,
the seeds sown at the last new moon are ready to be harvested and
utilized. Traditionally, the full moon is seen as a time for meditation
and particularly for personal issues and global concerns.

During the blue moon this vibration is said to be three-fold. In some
cultures the second full moon was considered a very holy and auspicious
day. A time when the veil between heaven and earth is thin and the
ability to communicate with the gods and goddess is very powerful. It is
considered a very spiritually significant time for prayer and
meditation going back thousands of years.

Full Moon Names and Their Meanings

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the
northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons
by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names
were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some
variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current
throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior.
European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own
names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the
full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac’s
list of the full Moon names.

Full Wolf Moon – January Amid the cold and deep
snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian
villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also
referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the
Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.

Full Snow Moon – February Since the heaviest snow
usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east
most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes
also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather
conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.

Full Worm Moon – March As the temperature begins
to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding
the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as
the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter;
or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from
thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the
time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it
was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last
full Moon of winter.

Full Pink Moon – April This name came from the
herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest
widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial
body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among
coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the
shad swam upstream to spawn.

Full Flower Moon – May In most areas, flowers are
abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other
names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.

Full Strawberry Moon – June This name was
universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it
the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting
strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full
Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!

The Full Buck Moon – July July is normally the
month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in
coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon,
for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time.
Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.

Full Sturgeon Moon – August The fishing tribes are
given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish
of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily
caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon
because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze.
It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.

Full Corn Moon or Full Harvest Moon – September
This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it
marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September
full moon is actually the Harvest Moon, which is the full Moon that
occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the
Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October.
At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the
light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes
later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the
Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30
minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much
of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the
chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.

Full Hunter’s Moon or Full Harvest Moon – October
This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood
Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this
bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the
deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long
winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late
September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other
animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because
of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally
accorded with special honor, historically serving as an important feast
day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.

Full Beaver Moon – November This was the time to
set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm
winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver
Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for
winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon – December
During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at
their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before
Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the
midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the
horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory
across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

Blue Moon

The Native Americans did not have a specific name for this moon as their
‘calendar’ was marked from moon to moon. But for others the Blue Moon
is considered a time of special significance. The magic of the Blue Moon
has great power for rituals at this time.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

San Diego is filled with with haunted places!
Haunted places in Downtown San Diego
Haunted places in Carlsbad, San Diego County
Haunted places in Escondido, San Diego County
Haunted places in Anza Borrego, San Diego County
Haunted places in Oceanside, San Diego County
Haunted places in Vista, San Diego County & more

Haunted Carlsbad Village
Carlsbad Village CA has many haunted locations. Perhaps its the
mineral springs under the city. Underground water sources can have a
major factor in paranormal activity because water is a conductor of
energy.

Haunted Twin Inns Carlsbad Village
On
Carlsbad Boulevard and Carlsbad Village Drive, stands the haunted
mansion of Carlsbad. The Victorian
mansion is now home to offices and the Ocean House. For decades it was
the hub of the Village and now stands watch
over the paranormal city of Carlsbad. There have always been rumors that
the Twin Inns was a haunted mansion with its trap-door tower and secret
room.

Ghosts of the Haunted Carlsbad Mansion

Tenants
say there are multiple spirts in and around the property. Strange
unexplained noises are often heard at all hours of the day. A delivery
driver was walking up the stairs to an office on the top floor. He
passed an oddly dressed little girl sitting near the top of the stairs
who smiled at him. When he delivered the package he told the two people
in the office "cute kid". They said there where no kids around. The
driver described the young girl who he stated was dressed in old
fashioned clothing.

They looked at each other and then told him that he
had seen one of the ghosts they have around here. Her spirit has been
seen many times, throughout the mansion. Other apparitions include an
adult woman who is seen looking out the very top windows of the
building. People walking near the property have reported seeing a group
of transparent little girls playing . One man stated "I saw a group of
ghost children playing games like
''ring around the rosey'' near the courtyard fountain of the Carlsbad
Village Faire on a early Sunday morning".

HistoryoftheHaunted Twins Inn Carlsbad Village
It was built in 1887 as the home of land speculator Gerhard
Schutte, who was the president of the Carlsbad Land and Mineral Water
Co. The German immigrant and Civil War vet (on the Union side) was not
looking to be a city's founding father, but rather saw an investment
opportunity. Land and water were prosperous ingredients in Western
expansion and Carlsbad had both—and not only water, but artesian spring
water similar to the world-famous Well No. 9 in Karlsbad, Bohemia (now
Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic).

D.D.
Wadsworth, a partner in the company, built his house as the
mirror image to Schutte's; they were beach front homes at the time. (The
Wadsworth house was torn down in 1950.) The properties went through a
few owners until Eddie Kentner Sr. purchased the two homes on three
acres in 1919. He and his wife, Neva, took over the matching houses 'the
Twin Inns'.
This was the same year the 18th Amendment was enacted, but prohibition
wasn't all bad for entertainment industries.

It was a boon for
moonshiners and rum-runners, and it kept a steady flow of traffic
streaming through Carlsbad. When alcohol was banned, many of Hollywood’s
elite would come down to Agua Caliente to keep the '20s roaring.
Roughly halfway between L.A. and Tijuana was the Kentners' Twin Inns,
with its famous chicken dinners. Ed "Bup" Kentner Jr. says, "There was a
call button on the back of the house for the bootleggers to use when
they delivered. The Twin Inns had a standing crop of about 10,000 chickens, and about 1,000 were butchered each week.

Ghosts and Spirits of the Haunted Carlsbad Inn
The
majority of paranormal activity takes place in the administrative
offices. Night shift employees report lights being turned on only
minutes after shutting them off almost every other night at the resort.
There is also a strong feeling of being watched along with the presence
of something standing directly behind you while alone in the offices. A
large dark figure has been seen standing in the corner of the gift shop
directly below the offices as well. In the courtyard an Ecto mist like
cloud was seen floating around in a strange, almost intelligent like
manor. The witness said it was a clear night with no fog or mist in the
air.

History of the Carlsbad InnThe
Carlsbad Inn Beach Resort sits on the site of the former Royal Palms,
which was a destination resort that included a charming wedding chapel.
Over the years, this fell into disrepair, and in 1985, Watkins, a
developer and CEO of Winners Circle Resorts International, bought the
prime piece of real estate and built the Carlsbad Inn Beach Resort.
Within the scope of his highly successful career as a real estate
developer, Watkins built his first hotel in 1962 and subsequently
specialized in resort development along the California coast.
Appreciating the uniqueness of the property’s location and history,
Watkins had the vision to try something different with the Carlsbad Inn,
and it became the first ever mixed-use resort property with a portion
of the units sold as vacation ownership condos, and the rest operating
as traditional hotel rooms.

Haunted Carlsbad Village Train Station
This
small train station has its share of paranormal activity. People have
reported hearing strange noises from the upstairs & seeing a ghostly
figure out of the corner of their eye.

Historyof Carlsbads haunted train station
Old Santa Fe Depot (400
Carlsbad Village Dr. on the National Register of Historic Places). The
depot was built in 1907 (replacing the first built in 1887) by the
Arizona Eastern Railway, and also served as a telegraph office, a Post
Office, a Wells Fargo Express Office and a general store. It served in
later years as a shipping point for local fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Closed in 1960, it is now the home of the Visitor's Information Center.

Haunted Carlsbad Lagoon
The
houses and apartment complexes that surround the lagoon have many cases
of ghostly activity. This is probably due to the fact that the land
across the lagoon was once
Oceanside's Buena Vista Cemetery. The first known burial was in 1885 and
the last known was in 1906. It's not known why burials stopped at Buena
Vista; some people disinterred and moved their loved ones' bodies to
the nearby Oceanside Cemetery. The land the cemetery was on was
purchased by a
schoolteacher in the 1950s. She wanted to preserve the view of Buena
Vista Lagoon from her home located on Stewart Street. The land was later
purchased by a developer who wanted to use the site for commercial
properties. In January 1970, 17 bodies were disinterred and removed to
El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley while others went to other
resting places.

The residents in the area report seeing ghostly apparitions in their backyards and along the lagoon.

One man who lives in an apartment complex said "Sometimes I can hear a mans voice mumbling or sometimes calling my name.
The voice is sort of deep and I know it's not anyone upstairs or
downstairs."

Haunted Plaza Cinema Carlsbad CA
In theater 3 a female usher was frightened by a trashcan rolling
up the hall way while cleaning. The girl also heard a name being
whispered in the theater. When she came out to see if it was another
employee doing the whispering everyone else was busy. She then started
crying and then quit the next day. Theater 4 has reports of objects falling from the ceiling.

Carlsbad abandoned house investigation, Carlsbad CA Case File 3

We arrived at the location at 11:36 PM on 9/10/2011. Our team of
four, entered the house through the back kitchen entrance. We checked
every area of the house with flashlights and EMF detectors for any
persons, animals or high amounts of electricity that could contaminate
our evidence. All was clear, so we decided to set up the equipment. It
was a very old house that had been abandoned for ten or more years and
had no utilities. The only thing unusual was what appeared to be blood
on the walls, curtains and ground throughout the inside of the house.
This could have been leftover from a practical joke, but we are still
unsure of this and it looked very disturbing. We set up in the main
bedroom where the air was thick and you had the feeling something was
watching. Everyone all agreed, this would be a good place to start. It
was the darkest part of the house and you could feel a presence toward
the corner, where a small, add on bathroom, with no door was located.

This is where we started our EVP session. Three minutes into the EVP
session both of the two female investigators experienced migraine like
headaches on the left side of their head. We stopped the EVP session and
made sure they were all right and the headaches ended as fast as they
started. We then started taking photos of the area and went back to the
EVP session. A few minutes later we heard a woman's voice come from the
bathroom. All four investigators heard this, but none of us could make
out what was said. I asked it again to speak and we heard the
disembodied female voice, but still could not make out what it was
saying although it sounded distressed. A second later we had heard a
loud crash from the kitchen area. We looked around the kitchen but could
not find anything or any reason for the noise. We started taking
pictures of the entire house and we captured some amazing photos.

We recorded an EVP saying " NO" and then something else that we could
not make out. When I said " if there is somebody here, speak to me
now"at this exact time was when we heard a disembodied woman's voice
speaking. The digital recorder did not record a woman's voice but
appears instead to be the voice of an angry male. We also captured an
orb with what appears to be a womans face in the hall bathroom (not the
bathroom where we did the EVPs) that appears to be a ghost orb. We
captured an orb floating a foot above the ground in another room. We left the abandoned
house an hour later after no other paranormal activity took place. I
took a few photos outside the house as we were leaving and captured a
very large Orb following us off the property. The air outside was clear,
with no fog, rain or wind was present during the investigation.

Conclusion
The womans face in the orb, the crash in the kitchen and the fact that
both female investigators began having headaches in the same area, leads
me to believe there could be a female ghost and a dark entity present.
Also the fact that we heard a distressed,disembodied womans voice
wailing for possible help and when we tried to communicate back.
Something disrupted our EVP session.The loud crash in the kitchen makes
me feel like a dark entity has trapped this poor soul and doesn't want
anyone communicating with it. The dark entity appears to have some
grudge against women as well. We still have some EVP's from this
investigation currently being reexamined, so keep checking for updates.
There is definitely paranormal activity at this location, possibly an
intelligent haunting with two or more entities, and we will be back
soon. We captured a photo of what we believe to be of a dark entity
peering around the corner of a hallway. This picture is still being
tested to determine its validity before we release it.

This
is a great place to hike, however these woods are extremely haunted.
The White Lady is seen along the trails usually in broad daylight.
Hikers report being touched on their shoulders and watch as she floats
above the ground and passes through objects. Most see a smiling woman
from a distance only to realize its a ghostly apparition. People driving
along the dark, wooded road at night have reported seeing her floating
in the woods as well.

Some people have reported seeing
apparitions of Native Americans bodies hanging from trees. The native
Northern Diegueno Indians once inhabited this land, dating back
thousands of years. One theory is that this area could also be a Native
American burial ground.

Locals say there are stone circles in the forest and that if you pass through them you will experience time lapses.

There was a sanitarium in this area that burnt down years
ago. When the place caught on fire many of the patients were trapped and
burned to death. Some ran into the woods on fire screaming in terror
only to die from their wounds. There are reports of laughing, screaming
and apparitions of these patients are seen lurking in the forest.
Many people mistake this place with Quest Haven Retreat down the road.
Questhaven Retreat has nothing to do with the sanitarium and is private
property.

There are also rumors that Gypsy's lived in this area and cursed this land when they were forced to leave.

All
this, and tales of a deadly cryptid giant white owl, along with stories of
cults performing dark rituals, makes this place a creepy place to visit.

Strange History of the Harmony Grove
There is evidence that possible ancestors of the
Northern Diegueno Indians lived in the Harmony Grove area. An
archeological bonanza, many artifacts have been found and efforts to
preserve others are underway. Mortars, metates, pictographs, and
petroglyphs discovered there help shed light on the Uyman language they
were known to have spoken and contribute to a clearer understanding of
their primitive way of life more than 9,000 years ago. There are ancient
petroglyphs in rocks at the extreme western end of Ninth Avenue. These
are Indian symbols and have a connection with others found in Escondido,
Hemet, Borrego, and Rancho Bernardo. They seem to be direction finders
similar to the magnificent rocks at Stonehenge in England.

Spook's Canyon
In the 1880s, a Welshman named Spook
homesteaded in the Elfin Forest valley. As recently as 1971, remains of
his orchard could be seen. It is probably because of this man that we
hear the term "Spooks Canyon," which has been a nickname our valley has
had for years. The meetings of spiritualist groups in Harmony Grove
provide another version of the origin of that nickname. The name also
fits in well with the ghosts and legends that are also part of our area.
The old stage coach route is haunted by the phantom stage of Carrizo. It is seen in the Anza Borrego State Park.
Before the turn of the century, the Butterfield Stage Coach Company
used Harmony Grove Road as part of its route from Escondido to San
Diego. The route went from Ramona to Escondido, followed the Escondido
Creek, turned west to Encinitas and then south to San Diego. A man name
Parkrider had a store near the junction of Harmony Grove and Elfin
Forest Roads. The road was paved in the late 1950s and after the
vacation ranch closed down in the1990s, even the few remaining bricks
from the store disappeared.

The area's beauty - year round stream and shade trees, as mentioned
earlier, led Dr. Harvey Urban, Jack Donnelley, and George Dew to buy
twenty acres at the junction of what is now Harmony Grave and Elfin
Forest Roads in 1959. They built a house and a dam to create a lake and
began adding spaces for trailers, campers, and mobile homes. Additional
land (for a total of 97 acres) was purchased and a grocery store was
opened. It was referred to as the Elfin Forest Vacation Ranch. They
provided boating, fishing, movies, and square dancing. When Dr. Urban
opened those acres up to public camping, the campground and the valley
around it became popularly known as Elfin Forest. The campground no
longer exists.

More History

Until 1977, the community was sparsely developed. In addition to
Questhaven Retreat, Harmony Grove Spiritualist Association, and the
Elfin Forest Vacation Ranch, there were a few older homes in the
surrounding hills. Many new homes were built between 1977 and 1980.
Inflation caused interest rates to rise and home building slowed until
late 1984. From 1985 to 1992, there was a boom in building in the area.
It is estimated that the population of the area grew to 450 homes, with
15 to 20 homes being added each year. From 1992 to 1995, the economic
slowdown in San Diego caused building to almost cease. 1996 saw a pickup
in the economy with some new building. The population according to the
last census stood at 1,000 in 1996 with a projected population of 2,156
in the year 2015.

In 1978, there were heavy rains in San Diego County. The Elfin
Forest–Harmony Grove areas were severely impacted as torrents of water
rushed down Escondido Creek causing a "40-year flood". The beautiful
lake in the Vacation Ranch was swept away, the basin around it was
severely flooded and the Ranch was devastated. Dr. Urban, who had plans
to develop it into exclusive mobile home estates, died shortly
afterwards, and his family was forced to sell the acreage. There were
plans to develop the ranch into a "Lawrence Welk" type of mobile home
park called Lake Elfin Forest, but the plans were not approved by the
county.

The Elfin Forest Recreational Reserves main trail climbs 1200 ft and has many tributary trails.
The Escondido Creek marks the trailhead. The main trail is a 1.6 mile
which meanders up a wall then leads up to numerous trails of varying
difficulties. There is a Botanical Trail well marked describing the
various plant life in the area. One can also extend the hike about 9
miles one way over the mountain to Lake Hodges.

Haunted Vista CA

Haunted Rancho Guajome Adobe Vista CA

Rancho
Guajome belonged to the Couts family for several generations. Colonel
Cave Johnson Couts was originally from Tennessee, but came to California
with the military in 1849. Here he married Ysidora Bandini, who was
born in Old Town, San Diego, in 1829. They are said to have met when
Ysidora and her sisters had climbed onto the roof of their house to
better see the handsome soldiers march into town, and Ysidora slipped
and slid off the roof, landing on Cave Couts.The couple had ten
children, the eight youngest born at Rancho Guajome.Ysidora was a
headstrong woman who had the family chapel built in spite of objections
from the Catholic church. She let the priest know in no uncertain terms
that she would have her chapel whether the church like it or not, and
that if he wouldn`t come bless it, she would do so herself. Ysidora is
said to haunt the chapel. It has been reported to hear a woman crying,
when no one is around. Also the halls and courtyard are haunted by a
male figure who roams the grounds, and will disappear suddenly into thin
air. In the mid 1970`s when the Rancho was being restored human bones of a unknown male were found in the wall.

Haunted Fallbrook CA

North County Times Newspaper
This
building is said to have multiple types of paranormal phenomena occur.
There is a floating apparition of a little girl that scares employees,
along with glowing white lights that fly around the establishment.

Haunted Del Mar

Haunted Del Mar Fairgrounds
Fairgrounds employees for years had been talking informally among
themselves about strange happenings on the fifth floor of the
grandstand, now private suites above the Turf Club. Furniture would
somehow be in a different place than before. Patio doors would open and
slam shut. The elevator one night wouldn’t stop on that floor, and its
hallways would get unseasonably cold. An apparition was ever caught on tape.

Haunted Anza Borrego

Anza Borrego Ghosts, Spirits, Ghost Lights, Treasure & more

The Lady in WhiteThe trip from Yuma to
Vallecito was an arduous desert trek, long stretches of desperately dry
sand and desiccated terrain. The stagecoach and its passengers staggered
from one rancid, warm watering hole to the next, a bumpy jarring ride
across baked and burning countryside. You moved at a crawl, with
shuddering winds and sudden cloudbursts. Choking dust was the
passengers' cruel and most steadfast escort. There were times where the
road became so bad the passengers had to get out and push the coach.
People went mad in the midst of this one-hundred fifty-mile trek. Some
coined the name for this tract of the Butterfield Stage Coach line, "The
Journey of Death."

The most well-known ghost story of Vallecito is about "The Lady in
White". Late in the 1850s, a young girl from the east arrived by stage
at Vallecito. She was on her way to Sacramento to meet her lover, who
had struck it rich in the Diggins. She was a frail young woman, worn
with the hardships of travel and ill from improper food and doubtful
water. She was carried from the coach and put to bed in the back bedroom
and given the best care available. But nothing could save her and her
fight was a losing one. Her journey came to an end in the dark bedroom
of the Vallecito stage station.

Her baggage was examined and a brand new white dress was found. It was
decorated with lace and sewn with a fine seam. It was to have been her
wedding dress. They dressed her in this and buried her in the Campo
Santo, a few hundred feet east of the station. They thought they had put
her to rest, but on moonlight nights, she has been seen, down through
the years, walking restlessly about the station. She harms no one but
her presence is disturbing even to the most obstinate non-believer.

It is no wonder that so many ghosts haunt the lonely trails,
mountains, and landmarks of the forbidding desert. The desert can be so
unforgiving and, at the same time, unbelievably generous. Many
travelers, prospectors and adventures have gone into the desert, never
to return or be seen again. Others have returned with gold nuggets and
treasures so rare and unique that we could only dream of being so lucky
ourselves.

Desert lore, stories and quests for loot and gold have made men
greedy. Gun fights, murders, and death from starvation and dehydration
have left many dead on the barren desert trails. Their ghosts still walk
the mountain ridges, gullies, and deserted locations they once traveled
or lived, spirits with unfinished business, who cannot rest.

Some guard buried treasures and lost mines, while others battle
perpetually until death, forever replaying their last moments of life.

The Phantom Stage of Carrizo

The Lady in White is not the only ghost story attached to the
Vallecito Stage Station. Not far from Vallecito is Carrizo Wash where
the Phantom Stage forges it way through the deep sand, pulled by a team
of four mules on moonlit nights. The Phantom Stage is driven by a lone
driver hunched over as if asleep. No passengers are seen in the Stage
when it passes through Carrizo Wash, hesitating for only a moment, as if
planning to stop at the place where the Carrizo Station once stood, but
is now only a pile of mud. The Phantom Stage continues on past the old
station until out of sight. In the morning one may think twice about
actually seeing the Phantom Stage, until he sees the ruts carved from
wagon wheels and hoof prints left behind by the ghostly stage that
travels by on occasion, as if to keep the trail alive.

There is another story that coincides with the Phantom Stage. In the
1860s, before the stage line closed, a special stage set out from El
Paso headed for San Diego with a box of coins. The stage that carried
the coins had one driver and a guard. When the stage reached Yuma,
Arizona, the guard fell ill and the driver continued on without him.
That same stage was held up by robbers somewhere in the area where the
route meanders into Carrizo Wash between the Fish and Coyote Mountains.
The driver was shot during the robbery and the thieves stashed the coins
on the south slope of Fish Mountain. The coins remain there to this
day, they say, because there were too many soldiers passing by on the
trail. It is said that after the robbery, the dead driver and the stage
continued through Carrizo toward Vallecito Station, but the stage
disappeared, never to be seen again.

The White Horse Ghost of Vallecito

Vallecito is famous for its ghosts. Its history contains many
murders, deaths, robberies, and other wicked tales. One well known story
involves a double-murder at Vallecito Station. It all started with a
stage hold up that yielded $65,000 worth of loot to four men on
horseback, who robbed the eastbound stage before it reached Carrizo Wash
en route to Vallecito Station.
As the men fled the scene, the driver of the stage fired one shot,
killing one of the four men. When he reached the thief he had shot, he
found not one, but two dead bodies. The driver concluded that the leader
of the band of thieves, had shot one of his own men so he would not
have to divide up the loot.

The bandit leader and one other thief survived the robbery and rode
on to rest at Vallecito Station. Shortly before they arrived at the
station, they buried their loot in some nearby hills and rode on to the
station for a drink and some food. It is said that the two bandits were
arguing while having a drink in the station. One of the bandits, the
leader, went outside to check on his horse promising to continue the
discussion when he returned. He did return to the station, entering
through the doorway mounted on his big white horse, and shot his
companion.

As the wounded bandit was dying, he drew his gun and fired back at
the leader, killing him dead from the back of his brave white mount. The
white horse, spooked by the gun fire and death of his master, ran off
into the hills. It is said that when someone is in the valley around
midnight, near the location where the bandits buried their loot, the
ghost of a White Horse will appear from nowhere, galloping through the
sand and then disappearing without a trace.

The Ghost Lights of Borrego

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and
the Borrego Springs area of
California are notorious for the many legends, ghost stories and
unexplained phenomena occurring there over the years. The region of the
Sonoran Desert is home to the Vallecito Stage Station, Yaqui Well, in
addition to the mysterious "Ghost Lights" of Oriflamme Mountain. The
first account of the "Phantom Lights" of Borrego was reported in
1858 by a Butterfield Stage driver. Since then soldiers, prospectors and
explorers have reported seeing similar lights. The sightings have been
reported near Oriflamme Mountain, over Borrego Valley and in other
nearby areas. The occurrences are always slightly different, but the
general description of the sightings is the same.

In 1892, a prospector by the name of Charles Knowles and two other
men were camping near Grapevine Canyon at the entrance to the Narrows,
where they reported their sighting of "Fire Balls." Knowles described
the "lights" as balls of fire that rose up approximately 100 feet in the
air and then exploded. Knowles compared the "Fire Balls" to fireworks.
He saw three "Fire Balls" rise and cascade upon explosion, before they
stopped. About 30 minutes later the "Lights" started again, but this
time they were different. The "lights" rose into an arch pattern
returning to the ground without exploding. The "Light" would then
reverse itself and go back to the place where it started.

Scientists have tried to determine a logical explanation for the
"Ghost lights." One scientific explanation suggests that when the wind
blows sand against quartz outcroppings, static electricity is created,
which could look like bright lights or sparks on a dark night.

Some believe that the lights were signals used by bootleggers during
prohibition or US Immigration for smuggling operations related to the
Mexican Boarder. The only problem with these two explanations is that
the sightings had been going on long before and after the time
constricted by the events described above.
Another notion is that the "Fire Balls" indicate the location of
buried treasure. There are stories that support this latter theory of
buried treasure. One of the stories tells of a young man who found many
gold nuggets in a gully within the Oriflammes. Another man by the name
of George Benton found a boulder of rock, weighing a ton, that contained
gold. He found the boulder in the Oriflammes.

The Eight-Foot Skeleton

If you find yourself out late in the desert night, somewhere between
the Superstition Mountains and Seventeen Palms, you may see the
apparition of an 8-foot skeleton with a lantern in his chest. A
prospector by the name of Charley Arizona first saw the ghost about 4
miles southeast of Borrego.
It was a dark night and Charley had already set up camp and was
settling down for the night. Not long after Charley turned in for the
night, something disturbed his burros and he went to investigate.
Suddenly, he saw a large human skeleton with a lantern light shining
through its ribs. The skeleton walked in a crazy fashion, as if looking
for something or as if it were lost. Shortly after Charley sighted the
skeleton, it disappeared over a small ridge.

About two years later, two prospectors had a similar experience while
camping in the Superstition Mountains. They caught sight of a
flickering light in the distance and wondered what it was; it quickly
disappeared. One of the prospectors thought it looked like a skeleton
carrying a lantern, but they figured it was the fire reflecting off a
rock.

The two prospectors didn't think much of the incident until a year
later, when a traveler came into the Vallecito Station with the tale of a
skeleton he saw wandering in the desert carrying a light. It wasn't
long before news of the skeleton got around and two adventurers went out
into the desert to search for this legendary skeleton ghost.

During their third night in the desert, they encountered the ghastly
lit skeleton. One of the men shot at it with a gun, but the skeleton
continued on unfazed by the gun fire. The two men followed the skeleton
for three miles as it wandered in a strange and intermittent gait, over
ridges and through valleys, before they lost track of it.
Many believe that the skeleton is the ghost of a prospector who
discovered and worked the Phantom mine, which has been lost for many
years. The skeleton is no better off than the rest of us, for he too
continues to search for the lost Phantom Mine, wandering the dark desert
nights looking for his final resting place.

Ghosts Dancers at Yaqui Well

Not far from the Phantom Mine lies another place where skeletons have
been seen. During warm summer nights, when the moon is full, ghosts
dance at Yaqui Well. The ghosts are said to be the spirits of three
emigrants who were traveling from Yuma to California. In search of a
shorter route through the desert, the emigrants arrived at Yaqui Well,
exhausted and near death from lack of food and water. One of the three
travelers drank from the well as much water as he could hold. He died
shortly there after. The other two men also drank from the well, but
survived.While moving their dead companion's body, the other two noticed some
rock specimens that fell out of his pocket. The two men were excited to
discover the rocks contained gold, but they did not know where their
friend had found the samples. The two men became very excited about the
gold and the excitement soon turned into a frenzy of greed and distrust.
The two men began to struggle until one finally drowned the other in
the muddy water of Yaqui Well.

An Indian watched these events unfold from a nearby hill. The Indian
felt it was safe to talk to the one man who had survived, but the
emigrant was still so excited as he described his story to the Indian,
he entered a state of frenzy and ran off in to the desert yelling "Gold,
Gold."

It is only during the hot summer nights of the full moon that the
three emigrants return to Yaqui Well. One rises out of the muddy waters
of the Yaqui Well, one emerges from the brush nearby, and the third
arrives in a cool breeze out of the wash. The ghosts join hands and
circle Yaqui Well in a dance. Soon after the twirling begins, they
disappear, leaving only the good waters of the well and a slight chill
in the air.
The desert holds many secrets of buried treasures, lost travelers and
mysterious sightings. The stories shared with you on these pages are
only a small sample of the tales and legends that have been spun for
centuries. In the months to follow, DesertUSA Magazine will share more
legends of lost mines, tales of buried treasures and more sad stories of
heartsick strangers stranded on the desert sands.

Humanoid / Cryptid

Carl
and his girlfriend had decided to go on an overnight backpacking
adventure. Their destination was Mt. Laguna (unincorporated area of San
Diego) however a forest fire in Julian closed off Route 78 therefore
they took an alternative route and stumbled upon the Anza Borrego Desert
State Park. They arrived at the park at 1700. He had never hiked, or
backpacked at the park, therefore Carl went to the visitor center got
the information he needed and set on his journey to Culp Valley
Campground. Culp Valley campground is approximately 3500 feet in
elevation. He pulled into the campground loaded their packs and set off.
They only backpacked about 1 mile out due to night settling. They set
up a tent about 20 feet north of the trail.

At around 0300am the
night moon had sunk behind the mountains surrounding the desert, it was
pitch black and Jeremy’s girlfriend was sleeping. Unable to sleep Jeremy
just stares at the starry sky. Suddenly he heard a man’s voice, he
looked into the direction it was coming from and saw a green light being
waved back and forth. He immediately thought it was a park ranger. The
light was about 50 yards east from his tent. He could tell that whoever
it was using the green light to guide somebody on the trail. The green
light was coming closer and closer to the tent...probably not directly
to the tent but on the trail about 20 feet away.

The tent was set up on a
small slope looking downward on the trail. The green light disappeared
and Carl panicked. Suddenly out of nowhere a massive amount of light lit
up the trail 20 feet from where he was. He was terrified, nobody was
talking at this point and he didn’t hear footsteps just saw a massive
amount of white light. The light was getting closer to the trail next to
his tent. He immediately ducked down and laid low in his tent scared.
He then peeked out of the tent and saw 12 to 15 humanoid figures that
looked like people, but some were extremely tall and the rest were
really very short with large bald heads. The tall figures appeared to be
wearing white cloak-like outfits and the short figures appeared to be
naked.

Terrified and his heart pounding Jeremy watched the beings walk
very gracefully and slowly, turning their heads from left to right with
each footstep. They were all holding metal rod like implements which
emitted a powerful white light. They seemed to ignore the tent and
walked “peacefully” by the tent. The witness remained laying down and
quite as the beings “walked” by the tent. The light eventually faded as
the beings continued down the trail and disappeared. Terrified he woke
his girlfriend 10 minutes later because he didn’t want the beings to
hear them talking.

He told the ranger the next day about what had
happened and the ranger wrote it down in a report, suspecting it was
some type of religious cult.

Lost Ship of the Desert

In the 1800’s, many stories began circulating throughout Southern
California and beyond about a spectral ship lying half buried in the
desert sands. Around that time, many migrants after Civil War passed
through the desert on their way to California. Many reported that they
saw a multi mast Spanish galleon. Multiple expeditions left looking for
the ship, but none found it. Some claimed it was Noah’s Ark. Many
more claimed that it was loaded with pearls, a fortune’s worth, millions
of dollars worth of exquisite pearls.

In 1610, King Phillip III of Spain ordered Alvarez de Cordone to
search the Western coast of Mexico and recover the pearls residing
there. Cordone hired two other captains, Juan de Iturbe and Pedro de
Rosales. He also hired sixty pearl divers and began having three ships
build. By July 1612 they set sail to plunder the west coast of its
precious oysters.

Over and over again the ship would pause in its travels so the pearl
divers could jump off the ship and return with the oysters they
discovered on the ocean floor. But the going was slow. Eventually they
discovered a Native American village and stopped, meeting with the
village leaders. They discovered that the Native Americans had baskets
of the pearls just lying about and they formulated a trade of their rich
fancy European clothing for the pearls. However, the Spanish swindled
the Native Americans and traded them only rags and dirty cloths. The
Native Americans outraged attacked the ship as it was trying to set
sail. Cordone was hit by an arrow and lay ill. His ship was forced to
turn around, but he ordered the other two on in search of more pearls,
commanding them to look up the Gulf of California.

As they journeyed up the Gulf, Rosales’s ship struck a reef. The
cargo was rapidly transferred to Iturbe’s ship and they continued on.
One story says that Rosales’s ship was sunk in a terrible storm. With
one ship remaining they sailed up the Gulf and eventually up the
Colorado River and into the Salton Sea (or the Blake Sea or Lake
Cahuilla as it may have been called long ago).

Here there’s some slight departures in the story. Some stories claim
that Iturbe (or another Spanish ship) sailed into the Salton Sea to
find the legendary Straits of Anian, an all water route from the Gulf of
California to the Gulf of Mexico. Some stories claim that the Salton
Sea and the Colorado River were higher and filled with water at the
time.

Supposedly this was during an unusual flooding season. Others
claim that after Iturbe had sailed from the Gulf of California and into
the Salton Sea, an earthquake happened, closing off what remained of the
Salton Sea from the ocean. Regardless, when Iturbe or whatever Spanish
ship had sailed into the Salton Sea, turned around to try and head back
home, they were dismayed to find that it was closed off. In fact, with
the outlet to the ocean blocked, the water their ship was currently in
was rapidly evaporating. The water slowly receded and eventually the
ship was beached on the California desert, many many miles from the
ocean. The ship was abandoned, the crew grabbing what few supplies they
could carry and they trudged west towards the water. Supposedly four
months later the survivors were finally picked up

Other versions of the tale, involve a pirate ship loaded down with
almost a million doubloons. Another story states that the ship is one
of the ships from King Solomon’s navy, carrying the ten lost tribes of
Israel to North America. Yet another claims the ship to be from a war
like tribe formerly located in the Indian Ocean.
Another puts the Spanish galleon on Lake Cahuilla, supposedly another
name for the large inland sea that eventually became the Salton Sea.

Lake Cahuilla existed in the 16th century and had a tribe of Native
Americans living in the area at the time. Knowing that the Spanish were
coming to take their treasures and probably hurt the tribe, the
Cahuilla Indians instead ambushed the Spanish party that came ashore
from the ship. Then the tribe mounted a full attack on the galleon and
after a fierce battle, annihilated all the crew on board claiming the
ship for the tribe. The Cahuillas began looting the ship of the
clothes, foods, and exotic items that the Spanish had brought with them,
but they could not move nor break into the heavy large iron chests that
were in the hold. While they were debating what to do with the
treasure chests a storm brewed up, and began attacking the galleon. The
Native Americans were forced to desert the ship which broke from its
anchor, driffted off into the storm, overturned and soon sunk into the
sea taking its precious cargo with it. By the time the lake supposedly
dried up, the ship had been long buried under tons of dirt, sand and
silt.

Lastly, one story discusses a viking ship that could be found
sticking out of the side of a mountain in the Tierra Blanco Canyon near
Agua Caliente Springs. Legends of Native Americans speak of the arrival
of the visitors that supposedly had a boat with the head of a snake on
it. Sightings of the mysterious viking ship apparently ended after a
1933 earthquake.

How true could this story be? It is surprisingly possible that a
flood occurred connecting the Salton Sea to the Gulf of California.
Supposedly in the past the two were connected at one time. The area
between the desert and the gulf has the potential to be hit with massive
flooding. And it would have been plausible for a ship to get carried
in on the waves and the stranded afterwards as the water receded.
Additionally the waters there have been known in the past to have
strange tidal bores that would sweep waves in land. A ship could have
been carried inland by one of those.

However, it must be from the sheer
number of stories and legends told by both Native Americans and
frontiersmen, that makes this story quite possibly true.
In the 1800s the legends, stories, and failed expeditions began.
Some claimed that the ship seen in the desert was haunted and could only
be found at certain times of the year. Native Americans told tales
about it, which was apparently good enough to confirm its existence.
One group claimed that the ship came from 1862 when several people built
a twenty-one foot single mast skiff mounted on wheels to transport
themselves across the desert. Sadly when they reached the lowest point
in the desert, they were forced to abandon the ship and continue on
without it. They claim that the ship people saw in the desert was their
abandoned wheel mounted skiff.

In 1870 several Indians reported seeing the ship, supplying a
location of approximately 30 miles west of Dos Palmas and 40 miles north
of the then San Bernardino - Yuma road.

1870 continued to bring attention to the ship in the form of a series of stories in the Los Angeles
Star on November 12th and December 1st of 1870. The stories spoke of a
man named Charley Clusker who claimed to have located the ship and was
organizing several expeditions to return to it and bring back the
missing ship which he claimed was filled with crosses and had broken
masts. It was reportedly fifty miles or more from Dos Palmas in a
region of boiling mud springs. Sadly there was nothing afterwards, and
Mr. Clusker appears to have simply disappeared much like the elusive
ship.

In 1878, three German prospectors saw the ship around sundown about
120 miles northwest of Yuma and 40 miles east of Indio. The two
survivors reported seeing an immense ship under full sail, floating over
the desert, sailing like a cloud into the sunset. One of the three
prospectors went after it the next morning, but never returned. A
rescue party eventually found him dead from lack of water and strangely
naked. Later one old timer, reportedly spent several days camping
inside the slowly rotting hull of the old galleon, completely unaware of
the pearls and immense wealth that lay buried under the sand beneath
him. Obviously, he was never able to relocated the derelict ship.

In 1905, a prospector named Butcherknife Ike, claimed to have
discovered a fossile ship buried in the san dunes of Borrego Springs.
And in 1915, a Yuma Indian arrived in one town paying for his
merchandise with pearls. After being questioned, he claimed to have
spent the night in a strangely shaped wooden house that was partially
covered by sand. The people he spoke to offered him several hundreds of
dollars plus a place to sleep for the night if he would take them back
there in the morning. He agreed, collected his pay, agreed to be lodged
for the night, and was no where to be seen come morning, having
completely vanished.
In 1933, Antonio de Fierro Blanco wrote a book that discussed the
story of Tiburcio Manquerna, a young mule driver who had apparently come
across the lost Spanish Galleon. At the time Tiburcio was operating as
a mule driver for Juan Baptista de Anza who was searching for a land
route from Sonora to Alta California. He even went into the hold of the
ship, saw the pearls, but was never able to relocate the evasive ship.
These events occurred around 1775.

Even as early as 1949, three UCLA students, armed with old newspaper
accounts, 1910 Imperial Irrigation District Maps, and old stories from
Cahuilla Indians, went out to search for a Viking ship. The Los Angeles
Times reported the undertaking, but sadly never told the results of the
expedition, which leads me to believe that like so many others before,
it too met in failure. Many treasure hunters have gone after the
missing treasure of pearls. None has brought back evidence of finding
it. One of the presumed reasons for this, is that the sands of the
desert shift sometimes moving or obscuring or revealing the lost ship.

And of course a ghost story has sprung up around the incident.
According to story tellers, the ship itself, now bleached white and
desiccated by the whipping sands blown by the desert winds, has become a
ghost. With an eerie otherworld glow and singing dead sailors, the
skeleton of a ghost ship sails the desert. often being seen sailing into
the sunset or along the moonlight. Of course, ghost stories are often
in dispute, as another ghost tale places the phantom ship near Kane
Springs, and the ship doesn't make a sound as it glides silently pass.
Nor are any sailors in view.

Does the mysterious ship laden with a fortune in pearls still reside
in the desert? Or is it simply a strange story that has been passed
down through the decades? Does it still sail spectrally over the sands,
heading off into the sunset? Perhaps one day, when the sands blow the
correct way, we’ll be lucky enough to find out.

The Lost Viking Ship

Quite possibly buried in the 1933
earthquake, a lost Viking Ship apparently resides in the Anza Borrego
Desert State Park in San Diego County . In 1933, near Agua Caliente
Springs, Louis and Myrtle Botts from the small town of Julian under
directions from a strange prospector they had met the night
before, stumbled upon the forward half of an old viking ship sticking
part way out of the mountains in Tierra Blanco Canyon.

Sadly shortly
after they discovered it and before they could take any photgraphic
evidence, a huge earthquake occurred and covered up the finding.
Strangely enough, Native American legends actually support the theory
that a Viking ship made it all the way around Canada, through the
Arctic Circle and down the west coast. The Seri Indians' legend states
that the "Come From Afar Men" arrived in a long boat with a head like a
snake. These men apparently all had yellow beards and hair. They were
also accompanied by a red haired woman.

The Mayo Indians also have legends involving a possible Viking Ship.
Their legend states that the ship sank off the coast and that the Mayo
Indians took in the survivors. These survivors inter married with the
tribe and this is the reason why even today occasionally descendants of
the Mayo Indians are born with blonde hair and blue eyes.

So just like a lost Spanish Galleon loaded up with pearls, a lost
Viking Ship buried under rubble might exist in San Diego County.

Haunted Star of India San Diego

Star of India Investigation, San Diego CA Case File 4

10/09/11 at 8:00 PM

The Star of India, originally named 'The Euterpe' is a mysterious ship
with a long dark history. Built in Ramsey on the Isle of Man, England
in 1863, it was one of the first ships made of iron as well as one of
the fastest. On its maiden voyage it suffered a collision and a mutiny.
On her second voyage in 1865, The Euterpe was forced to cut her masts in
a gale and barley made it to Trincomalee and Calcutta for repair.
Captain Story died and was buried at sea during the return voyage to
England. In 1873 alone, the ship had 8 passenger deaths from various
causes.

On 1884 a young stowaway that was put to work on the ship was
showing off and climbed up the rigging and fell 100 feet. The young
stowaway died 3 days later of his injuries. Shortly after, passengers
and crew started to report the ghost of the boy touching them near the
mast where he fell, making 'S' shapes on their bodies. This was how the
game of tag was played during that period and was a favorite pastime on
the long voyages. Many report hearing the giggling of a boy as well,
along with cold spots. Another ghost of the Star of India, is reported
to be of a Chinese crew member who was slowly crushed to death in the
anchors chain locker.

The chain locker is reported to have a cold spot
when the ghost makes its presence known. There is a tale of a captain
who slit his own throat in a drunken, frenzied state. The ships
physician stitched up the distraught gentleman, but he later pulled out
his stitches and bled to death in the First Mate’s Cabin. This area of
the ship is reported to have a dark presence felt and guests that sleep
in the room are usually awoken by something touching them or ripping the
sheets off in the middle of the night.

Other ghostly encounters have
been reported on the lower deck of the ship where many sailors and
passengers have died from diseases and injuries throughout its long
history at sea. Some visitors report smells of freshly baked bread
coming from the galley as well.
Our team of 2 went aboard the Star of India at 8:00 PM for a quick
investigation of this fascinating ship. We began on the top deck and
worked our way down, taking pictures and checking EMF levels.

I
personally felt a presence near the anchors engine. Perhaps this was the
crew member who was slowly crushed to death by its chains? I took
photos and did a quick EVP session, but unfortunately no evidence was
gathered. We did capture some exciting orb pictures in other areas of
the ship and after an hour and a half of investigating we decided to
call it a night.

Conclusion

The personal experience I had on board the ship near the anchors engine
and the orbs we captured leads Paranormalistics to believe there in some
form of paranormal activity taking place. The unique design of the ship
along with its dark history of tragedy and the fact that it is
surrounded by water makes it a perfect environment for a haunting. We
cant wait to come back to the haunted Star of India.

The Haunted Hunter Steakhouse Oceanside CA

This is one of Oceansides most haunted locations. Prior to the restaurant being built, the land was once
Oceanside's Buena Vista Cemetery. The first known burial was in 1885 and
the last known was in 1906. It's not known why burials stopped at Buena
Vista; some people disinterred and moved their loved ones' bodies to
the nearby Oceanside Cemetery.

The land the cemetery was on was purchased by a
schoolteacher in the 1950s. She wanted to preserve the view of Buena
Vista Lagoon from her home located on Stewart Street. The land was later
purchased by a developer who wanted to use the site for commercial
properties. In January 1970, 17 bodies were disinterred and removed to
El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley while others went to other
resting places.

During the grading of the site for use, and during the creation of the
ramp for the I-5 freeway, construction workers found human remains and
coffins. These discoveries were swept under the rug by developers so the
workers took it upon themselves to rebury any remains they found on the
site.

Ghosts of the Hunter SteakhouseThe Hunter
Steakhouse sits on a hill above the Buena Vista Lagoon. Patrons
and employees have constantly reported incidents. The stairwell to the
bar area appears to be the home of a female spirit. There is a storage
room above the lower dining area and entrance. The room is constantly
locked and hardly used. But for some reason the spirits prefer this
location when the restaurant gets busy. There are three windows up
there, and although they can`t be opened, people feel drawn to gaze at
these windows. Also from the second floor an apparition has been
reported moving across the room from the fireplace in midair. Several
people have heard there names called by both male and female voices.
Like many other locations of hauntings, objects moving and power surges
have been reported as well. The submitter of this haunted places reports
seeing a face of a male form out of the chimney, ever so briefly, but
it felt welcoming.

Paranormal Activity has also been reported at the nearby Amazon Bike
Shop. The building was formerly a gas station and strange incidents were
reported during that time as well.

A small reminder of the Buena Vista Cemetery remains in
the form of a plaque near the entrance of the restaurant, donated by the
Oceanside Historical Society. Part of it reads, "Dedicated to the
memories of those who were buried at Buena Vista Cemetery. While some
bodies were moved before and during construction on this site many
remain here or nearby." The names of the people found on gravestones are
listed on the plaque.

Haunted locations in San Diego

San Diego - Bonita - Bonita rd - Reports of an older man appears in the
backseat of the witnesses’ cars. He is said to be the ghost of a man
that was run over here. San Diego - Bonita Vista High School - In the boys locker room, showers
sometimes turn off and on by themselves. The boy's bathroom in the gym's
front room has been reported to have loud whispering coming from it
when no one is inside, and a malevolent force is often felt in the
bathroom. In the gym, cold spots are often felt on the bleachers, and at
times you can feel a hand grab your ankle or shoulder, even if you are
alone. San Diego - Brooklyn Elementary School - Janitors claim to see children
running throw the hallways at night. and When the Janitors try to go
home after there shift is over the doors wont open they say it feels
like someone is on the other side pushing the door. They also say
there’s cold spats and hear children crying San Diego - El Cajon - One of the Mobil home spaces - In one of the
spaces There is said to be an old man that appears occasionally in the
house where 2 old people live; a women and a man. Once when the man who
lived there was saying a prayer the ghost would get really mad and start
throwing stuff off the shelf. Then when the man was out of the house
the woman thought that he was back and she heard the doorknob starting
to twist but not open so she went to look and no one was there. Another
time was when the man was fixing up his car he saw the ghost and said hi
because he thought that it was a person who lived in there park. He put
his screwdriver down looked back at it and it wasn't there he looked
down the street and up the street and the ghost was nowhere in sight.
Still to this day they see the ghost he is very pale and you can only
see his upper body. San Diego - El Cajon - Rios Canyon - The ghosts of two cowboys can be
seen at the back end of the canyon on the old dirt road. Some say
"they’re looking for the lost gold". San Diego - El Fandango Restaurant - a woman in white appears at a dark table in the corner. San Diego - Horton Grand Hotel - Located in downtown San Diego has 1 or more haunted rooms. Temperature changes and sightings San Diego - The Hotel Del Coronado - Kate Morgan reportedly killed
herself. Her body was found on the steps leading to the beach. It was
also thought it may have been murder. She is seen not only in her room,
(which is now room 3312) but other areas of the hotel and grounds as
well. San Diego - Lake Morena Campground - Across from one of the campsites,
in a wooded area, there appears the ghost of a young woman in a long
white dress. There is a cold and eerie presence near the boulders that
lie beneath the trees, and her apparition has been seen on two occasions
by two different men. The first sighting occurred on a warm July night
around 9:00 p.m. A group was setting up camp when one of the men
ventured over to the dark area and found the young lady looking at him.
He was startled and turned away. When he turned back, she had vanished
but he could still feel her presence. The second sighting occurred
around 3:00 a.m., a couple of days later. Another man from the same
group of campers got out of his tent after being awakened from a deep
sleep by an unknown presence. He looked over his tent and saw the lady
pacing. She stopped, looked right at his face, then continued to pace as
if she were waiting for someone. The man went to wake up his friends,
but by the time he woke anyone she had vanished. Not being able to sleep
after the sighting, he decided to stay awake with another camper and
start a campfire. In the distance, they could hear the voice of a woman
laughing and singing. There seemed to be no explanation for it at that
time of the morning. On other occasions the same campers have heard
heavy footsteps around their tents during the night that do not fade as
if someone were walking away, but simply lift and disappear. In a photo
taken of one of the campers in this area, there appears a large orb
floating right next to him. San Diego - McDonalds on Miramar Rd. - Strange things would happen
during the dead of night while McDonald workers would be closing and
preparing for the next day. Tubs of Mustard, straws, etc. would be
thrown across and scattered the next morning. In one of the bathroom
stalls, there would be a picture of the devil create from the wood
grains of the stall door. The door has been replaced due to too many
visitors wanting to see the "face". San Diego - Mission Valley - Taco Bell - employees have reported
whispers coming from the bathroom. Trash doors swinging one time at
closing there was three closers one manager and two crew one of the crew
members was washing dishes he seen some one who he thought was a
employee walk behind him and go in the walk-in freezer" so the employee
thought he would play a joke on the employee as he held the door tightly
the door was moving like there was some one in there when three minutes
went by then the employee let go of the door. he went to go see if the
manager was coming but he was shocked to see both the manager and the
employee was working he was really scared he had goose bumps. San Diego - Montgomery High School - Floating lights can be seen late at
night in the football stadium .Witnesses have heard screaming and then
saw balls of floating lights came towards them. chasing them until they
got to the front of school near the main office. Reports of voices in
the bathrooms as well. San Diego - Muirlans Middle School - The school was built in the early
50's. There was a girl that once went to the school in the 60's who died
by bumping her head during a PE class. Ever since people have said of
strange noises from behind them only to see that no one is there. San Diego - NAS Miramar - Hangar 1 is haunted by the crew of a F-8 Crusader that crashed there in the late 60's. San Diego - Nijiya Market - In this small Japanese grocery store an
elderly customer suffered a heart attack and died in the store.
Sometimes objects fall from the shelves on their own and with no
explanation; one manager while there in the middle of the night heard
strange noises and his name whispered several times. San Diego - El Campo Santo Cemetery - Formerly posted as "Old Town
Cemetery" - This was partially paved over with a road. It is said ghosts
appear to be crossing that section of the road at night. - February
2004 Correction: The proper name of the "Old Town Cemetery" in San Diego
is "El Campo Santo Cemetery." Among the numerous other spirits sighted
at the location (including the paved portions under the adjacent
sidewalk and streets), psychics claim that the site is to this day
overseen by the spirit of the gravedigger whose own grave is near the
cemetery's SE corner. San Diego - Point Loma National Cemetary - just north of the city of san
diego is a normandy-sized cemetary that was a favorite place for
marines awaiting to leave for westpac ground forces.the marines used to
go there on short liberties to lay amongst the grave stones,smoke and
get drunk and near midnight witness souls rising from their graves to
walk near the one thousand foot cliffs and look out over into the
pacific ocean to see if their country was secure and then they would
return to their graves.not to many young marines wanted to talk about
this experience back at the old mainside of camp pendleton as the
cemetary is the location of thousands of buried marines from the first
and fifth marine divisions killed in action durring world war two. San Diego - Presidio Hill (Old Town San Diego) - Locals call it witches
tower. Its the "storage shed" in the parking lot adjacent to the
mission. yet it has a huge pentagram built into cobblestones atop of
this shed. Well the shed was used as a "cell" to hold prisoners.
Visitors have seen apparitions such as, a guardian to the tower that
looks like he is dressed in druidic clothing or a black cloak with
glowing eyes. Reports of possession, & strange darting figures. San Diego - Presidio Park - A little white dear can be seen running around but then it vanishes when it is spotted. San Diego - Ramona High School - Students in the band room have reported
instruments in cases being ejected out of lockers (locked with
combination locks) And their cases being flung open during private
tutoring sessions San Diego - Screaming Tree - In the suburb of Lakeside, at the end of
Willow Road, there is a narrow dirt road, down this road some distance
(and after passing a slaughterhouse of some sort) there is a clearing
with a tree, supposedly if one blasts one's car horn three times a ghost
of a girl will start screaming. Mostly this area is a hangout for
dubious characters so it may not be a good idea to go alone.San Diego - The Star of India, originally named 'The Euterpe' is a mysterious ship
with a long dark history. Built in Ramsey on the Isle of Man, England in
1863, it was one of the first ships made of iron as well as one of the
fastest. On its maiden voyage it suffered a collision and a mutiny. On
her second voyage in 1865, The Euterpe was forced to cut her masts in a
gale and barley made it to Trincomalee and Calcutta for repair. Captain
Story died and was buried at sea during the return voyage to England. In
1873 alone, the ship had 8 passenger deaths from various causes. On
1884 a young stowaway that was put to work on the ship was showing off
and climbed up the rigging and fell 100 feet. The young stowaway died 3
days later of his injuries. Shortly after, passengers and crew started
to report the ghost of the boy touching them near the mast where he
fell, making 'S' shapes on their bodies. This was how the game of tag
was played during that period and was a favorite pastime on the long
voyages. Many report hearing the giggling of a boy as well, along with
cold spots. Another ghost of the Star of India, is reported to be of a
Chinese crew member who was slowly crushed to death in the anchors chain
locker. The chain locker is reported to have a cold spot when the ghost
makes its presence known. There is a tale of a captain who slit his own
throat in a drunken, frenzied state. The ships physician stitched up
the distraught gentleman, but he later pulled out his stitches and bled
to death in the First Mate’s Cabin. This area of the ship is reported to
have a dark presence felt and guests that sleep in the room are usually
awoken by something touching them or ripping the sheets off in the
middle of the night. Other ghostly encounters have been reported on the
lower deck of the ship where many sailors and passengers have died from
diseases and injuries throughout its long history at sea. Some visitors
report smells of freshly baked bread coming from the galley as well.San Diego - The Whaley House - haunted by Thomas Whaley & it is
believed there are others. This house was once the city's courtroom. The
haunting extend beyond Thomas Whaley and to a man hanged just outside
the house. He was hung for stealing a boat. One visitor strongly felt
the presence of a woman while touring the house, in one of the upstairs
bedrooms. “It was not frightening...the presence was actually welcoming.
There are tours in this place. San Diego - U.S Grant Hotel - This hotel was built in 1910, and
apparently a man walks the hallways of the hotel, and at times goes into
the rooms and makes noises. San Diego - Vagabond Motel near 5 Freeway & Garnet - Tangible
feeling of dread, oppression, and sadness in room 325 and nearby
hallway. Occasional glimpses of spirit of "Amanda", a tall blonde or
red-haired young woman. Apparently, she was a former beauty queen and
model who, depressed over her inability to conquer a drug habit, slit
her own throat in that room. Apparently, she wants your prayers praying
replaces the air of dread with an air of calm and peace and scent of
jasmine, and you can feel her saying "thank you". San Diego - Villa Montezuma - On K Street, near Barrio Logan. Built in
1887 for a musician named Jesse Shepherd. The house has a very dark,
heavy feeling. After Jesse Shepherd’s death, the house went through a
succession of owner's, all of which claimed bad things happened to them
while in possession of the house. Shepherd had once enjoyed wealth and
fame, but at the end of his life, he was very poor and emotionally
unstable. The house is said to be haunted by Shepherd himself and an
elderly widow who previously owned the house. She is seen looking out of
the window in one of the towers. Reason for Shephard's haunting said to
be the fact that Shephard was known for being able to "channel" famous
piano players while playing and was once reported to be playing Mozart
with one hand and Chopin with the other. It is believed that while
channeling the great composers, he channeled some negative energy into
the house. Beautiful stained glass portraying pictures of famous
composer, writers, and artists. In some of these, hair seems to be
turning gray and beards seem to be growing. Strong presence is felt, and
reports of seeing scenes the past (1800s some time). It feels like
something was actually looking out the window, through your eyes. It was
a very uncomfortable, evil feeling. There are tours in this place.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

How close is artificial intelligence to human intelligence now? Scientists say artificial intelligence (AI) is very close to becoming self-aware and will soon have the ability to think like human intelligence.

This summer, a computer almost passed the Turing intelligence test. Lets examine the narrowing gap between humans and machines.

This year will be remembered as a turning point in the story of man versus
machine. On June 23, with little fanfare, a computer program came within a
hair’s breadth of passing the Turing test, a kind of parlour game for
evaluating machine intelligence devised by mathematician Alan Turing more
than 60 years ago.

This wasn’t as dramatic as Skynet becoming self-aware in the Terminator films,
or HAL killing off his human crew mates in 2001, A Space Odyssey. But it was
still a sign that machines are getting better at the art of talking –
something that comes naturally to humans, but has always been a formidable
challenge for computers.

Turing proposed the test – he called it “the imitation game” – in a 1950 paper
titled “Computing machinery and intelligence”. Back then, computers were
very simple machines, and the field known as Artificial Intelligence (AI)
was in its infancy. But already scientists
and philosophers were wondering where the new technology
would lead. In particular, could a machine “think”?

Turing considered that question to be meaningless, so proposed the imitation
game as a way of sidestepping the question. Better, he argued, to focus on
what the computer can actually do: can it talk? Can it hold a conversation
well enough to pass for human? If so, Turing argued, we may as well grant
that the machine is, at some level, intelligent.

In a Turing test, judges converse by text with unseen entities, which may be
either human or artificial. (Turing imagined using teletype; today it’s done
with chat software.) A human judge must determine, based on a five-minute
conversation, whether his correspondent is a person or a machine.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Welcome
to our cryptid creatures list. This list will help identify a cryptid. A cryptid is a
creature or plant whose existence is suggested but has not been
officially recognized by science, or is considered extinct,
but are reported being seen from time to time. A cryptid is often thought of as a
legend or dismissed as a myth or hoax. Famous creatures like Bigfoot,
and Nessie remain a mystery. However, many animals widely recognized
today were once among these illusive cryptid creatures.

Here are some of today's most famous cryptid creatures.

Reptilians

Reptilian
humanoids are Man-kinds oldest and most fascinating recorded
supernatural entities. Some say reptilians inhabited Earth before
humans. From ancient Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the America's, reptilians are believed to have played an important role in our
creation, education and social development.

It is believed there are many types of reptilians, from different origins. For example, ones who evolved
from Earth and ones who evolved from the Draco constellation or beyond. Reptilians are also referred to as Draconians, Dracos, Reptoids & Lizard People.

Reptilians are believed to be a highly evolved species with special powers like telekinesis, shape-shifting and more. In ancient Asia, the dragon and serpent
signify divine heritage and royalty,
while in ancient Europe, the serpent represents wisdom and knowledge.

Grey's

Grey aliens (also referred to as "Greys") are alleged extraterrestrial beings, named for their skin color. Paranormal claims involving Greys vary in every respect including their nature (ETs, extradimensionals, demons,
or machines), origins, moral dispositions, intentions, and physical
appearances (even varying in their eponymous skin color). A composite
description derived from overlap in claims would have Greys as
small-bodied sexless beings with smooth grey skin, enlarged head and
large black eyes. The origin of the idea of the Grey is commonly
associated with the Betty and Barney Hill abduction.

Mothman

On Nov. 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and
Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a
large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights
picked it up. They described it as a "flying man with ten foot wings"
following their car while they were driving in an area of town known as
'the TNT area', the site of a former World WAR 2 munitions plant.

During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings.
Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red
eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed
the sightings were due to an unusually large heron
he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that
when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes
glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his
television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the
creature.

Wildlife
biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told
reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the Sandhill Crane,
a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot
wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that
the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.

There
were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15,
1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, giving
rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were
connected.

Many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO
Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have
seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda
Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of
times," sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t
want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you."
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claims that sightings of Mothman continue, and told USA Today
he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman
was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and
that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they
fled from it.

Since 1967 Mothman reports keep coming in from all over the world.

Bigfoot

Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, Skunk Apes, Yowies, Almas, Kaptars
& Mapinguari are just a few of it's many names. These large, bipedal
apes occur in the folklore of native people across
the globe. Here's a list of some of the most famous Bigfoot-like
creatures.

Different Types of Bigfoot

SASQUATCH / BIGFOOT
“Sasquatch” is a derivative of “Sesquac,” which means “wild man” in a British Columbian Native American language.

YETI
Stalking the high elevations of the Himalayas, the Yeti has captured
the interest of the western world since climbers began tackling peaks
like Everest. Local tribes consider the Yeti to be a fact of life, no
more strange than the black bears of Appalachia. Reports from Western
climbers are frequent throughout the last hundred years, so frequent
that even Sir Edmund Hillary himself mounted an expedition in search of
the massive man-ape.

ALMAS
Another variety of Bigfoot, this creature lives in the mountainous
terrain on the border of Mongolia and China. It's more human-like than
our Bigfoot; some scientists believe it's more of a Neanderthal than a
primate.

SISIMITE
This is the ape-man of Central America. The shaggy-haired creature is
said to have supernatural powers, which it uses to protect the
wilderness. According to legend, the Sisimite will attack hunters in
order to protect wildlife.

SKUNK APE
The Southernmost Bigfoot to occupy North America, the Skunk Ape is a
resident of Florida’s extensive Everglades. Some say it is a cousin to
Bigfoot, while others say it's the same species. The number of sightings
of the Skunk Ape in Florida rival the number sightings of Bigfoot in
the Pacific Northwest. The animal earned its name because of its unique
smell.

Loch Ness Monster

The
Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in
the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in
Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account
to the next. Popular
interest and belief in the animal has varied since it was brought to
the world's attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal,
with minimal and much-disputed photographic material and sonar readings.

The most common speculation among believers is that the creature represents a line of long-surviving plesiosaurs. The
scientific community regards the Loch Ness Monster as a modern-day
myth, and explains sightings as a mix of hoaxes and wishful thinking.
Despite this, it remains one of the most famous examples of
cryptozoology. The legendary monster has been affectionately referred to
by the nickname Nessiesince the 1950s.

The following creatures were
once dismissed by science as products of myths & legends, but are now officially recognized as their own species.

Giant Crocodile

A
21-foot (6.4 meter) long crocodile was captured by staff of the
Protected Areas and Wildlife Division (PAWD) of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources of Philippines. The crocodile weighed
1,075 kilogram (2,370 pound) and is suspected to
have eaten a farmer and killing a 12 years-old girl in 2009. Before this
massive crocodile was captured, scientists did not believe one could
grow to such an amazing size anymore. This is truly a living dinosaur,
especially since crocodiles lived along side other Jurassic age
creatures.

Megamouth Shark

The first Megamouth shark was discovered in 1976 off of Oahu, Hawaii. It
was such a strange-looking creature that it required a new family and
genus categorization. Its overly large mouth, hence its name, is used to
scoop. It is a filter feeder, like the whale shark, and believed to be
no threat to humans.

Kappa

Kappa, or traslated "river-child", are legendary water sprites found in
Japanese folklore. They are depicted to have a humanoid form and to be
about the size of a child. They have scaly, teptilian skin which range
in color from green to yellow or blue. They have webbed feet and hands. They inhabit the ponds and rivers of Japan. TheKappa,
being water sprites, have been blamed for the drownings and it was
often said that kappa would lure people to the water pull them in. Even
today people will blame kappa for drowning victims.

It
has been suggested that the kappa legends are based on the Japanese
giant salamander, which is an aggressive salamander which can grow up to
6 ft in length! They will attack and could easily pull a small person
or child into the water for its meal.

Sea Serpent

For centuries, the Sea Serpent persisted as the most captivating
cryptozoological mystery in the world. Sightings of these mysterious,
and often frightening, creatures have occurred plentifully throughout
history, even up until the early twentieth century. From northern
European waters to the Eastern North American coast, tales of
serpentine, aquatic beasts of colossal proportions dot the globe. Their
descriptions vary, ranging from horse-headed creatures to massive
snakes.

Cryptozoologists speculate that various misidentified animals can
account for Sea Serpent sightings. However, one elusive species is a
particularly likely source for many of these accounts. The oarfish (or
ribbonfish) is a massive, elongated fish found worldwide. It is the
longest of all bony fish, the largest recorded being 17 meters (56 ft)
in length. Oarfish typically dwell in the deep ocean, but are
occasionally washed ashore in storms, and linger at the surface near
death. A live oarfish was filmed for the first time in 2001,
demonstrating its rarity and reclusive nature.

Komodo Dragon

By the early twentieth century, Western science had determined that
giant lizards were nothing more than a relic of the prehistoric past.
Thus, when pearl fishermen returned from the Lesser Sunda Islands, in
Indonesia, with tales of monstrous “land crocodiles”, their accounts
were met with overwhelming skepticism. An expedition from the Buitenzorg
Zoological Museum, in Java, produced a report of the creatures, but the
legendary dragons of Komodo faded into obscurity as World War I took
precedence.

Then, in 1926, an expedition from the American Museum of Natural
History confirmed that the tales of giant lizards were true. W. Douglas
Burden, the leader of the expedition, returned with twelve preserved
specimens and two live ones. The world was introduced to the Komodo
Dragon, a massive monitor lizard that grows up to ten feet, making it
the largest lizard in the world. Komodo Dragons possess massive claws
and fangs with which they can kill almost any creature on the island,
including humans and water buffaloes. One particularly bizarre attribute
of these creatures is their venomous bite, which has been attributed to
bacteria-laden saliva or venom glands in the mouth.

The 1926 expedition to Komodo served as the inspiration for King
Kong, in which a similar expedition to a foreign island reveals
prehistoric megafauna.

Okapi

Central African tribes and ancient Egyptians described and depicted a
bizarre creature for centuries, colloquially dubbed the “African
unicorn” by Europeans. It is known locally by such names as the Atti, or
the O’api, resembling a cross between a zebra, a donkey and a giraffe.
Despite descriptions from explorers and even skins, Western science
rejected the existence of such a creature, viewing it as nothing more
than a fantastical chimera of real animals. Determined expeditions
uncovered nothing, and it would seem the “African unicorn” was just as
mythical as its namesake.

This changed in 1901 when Sir Harry Johnston, the British governor of
Uganda, obtained pieces of striped skin and even a skull of the
legendary beast. Through this evidence and the eventual capture of a
live specimen, the animal now known as the okapi (okapia johnstoni) was
recognized by mainstream science. The okapi is no less unusual today: it
is the only living relative of the giraffe, sharing a similar body
structure and its characteristic long blue tongue. However, the markings
on its back legs resemble that of a zebra’s stripes. Okapis are
solitary creatures that remain captivating to scientists; although not
endangered, there is still much to learn about their habits and
lifestyle.
The okapi was the symbol of the now defunct International Society of
Cryptozoology, and remains a persisting icon of Cryptozoology to this
day.

Giant Squid

Tales of enormous squids have circulated throughout the world since
ancient times. Aristotle and Pliny the Elder both described such
monsters; legends such as the Lusca (Caribbean), Scylla (Ancient
Greece), and the sea monk (Medieval Europe) all describe a bizarre,
often dangerous nautical creature. Perhaps the most famous legendary
squid is the Norse Kraken, a monstrous, tentacled beast as large as an
island that devoured ships whole. Prior to the 1870s, scientific opinion
held such creatures as nothing more than ridiculous myths, on par with
mermaids or sea serpents.

Despite this, investigations into the existence of the legendary
Kraken took place as early as the 1840s. Danish zoologist Johan Japetus
Streensup methodically researched and catalogued giant squid sightings
and strandings, eventually examining a beached corpse and designating
the beast’s scientific name: Architeuthis. Even so, fellow scientists
remained skeptical and continued to dismiss accounts.

In the 1870s, the skepticism stopped as several carcasses were
beached in Labrador and Newfoundland. Tentacles and complete corpses
revealed to the scientific world that the giant squid was indeed real.
Today, this creature remains just as mysterious and rare. Typically
living at great depths, giant squid sightings are uncommon and often
undocumented. For a century, scientists dutifully attempted to observe
it in its natural habitat, but failed. Only in 2004 were a group of
Japanese scientists able to capture a live giant squid on camera, taking
500 automatic photographs before the creature swam back into the
blackness.

Many questions remain concerning the giant squid. Very little is
known about its habits and lifestyle, and it is still unknown how large a
giant squid can grow. The largest specimens are between 30 and 40 feet
long, weighing over 100 pounds. However, its close relative, the
Colossal Squid, may grow to much greater sizes, as evidenced by the size
of sucker marks on sperm whales. To this day, the giant squid remains a
legendary example of how fantastic animals on earth can be.

Devil Bird

The Devil Bird, or Ulama, is a frightening horned bird of Sri Lankan
folklore. This elusive creature is rarely seen, but is often heard in
the form of its infamous, blood-curdling screams. Its cries are said to
resemble a wailing woman and are perceived by locals as an omen of
death. For centuries, the nocturnal cries of the Devil Bird were the
only evidence of its existence; Western science wrote if off as mere
superstition.

Then, in 2001, the Devil Bird was identified as a new species of owl,
the spot-bellied eagle owl (bubo nipalensis). The largest of all Sri
Lankan owls, the bubo nipalensis matches the description of the Ulama
perfectly, down to its characteristic screech and tufted “horns”.
Although some debate still remains as to the true identity of the
Devil-Bird, the spot-bellied eagle owl stands as the most compelling
source of inspiration for this mysterious creature.

Ziphius

In Medieval folklore, the Ziphius, or “Water-Owl”, was a monstrous
nautical creature said to attack ships in the northern seas. It
possessed the body of a fish and the head of an owl, complete with
massive eyes and a wedge-shaped beak. “Ziphius”, meaning “sword-like” in
Latin, may refer to the beast’s fin, which was said to pierce the hulls
of ships like a sword.

Today, the inspiration for the Ziphius is known as Cuvier’s Beaked
Whale, a widespread species of beaked whale. Also known as the
Goose-beaked whale, this creature is found as far north as the Shetland
Islands and as south as Tierra Del Fuego at the tip of South America. It
is the only member of the genus Ziphius, which bears the name of its
legendary identity. Some additionally attribute the inspiration of the
Ziphius to the orca or the great white shark, based on some depictions
of the beast as a predator to seals.

Bondegezou

The Bondegezou (“man of the forests”) is a legendary, ancestral
spirit of the Moni people in Western Indonesia. Described as a
tree-dwelling creature, the Bondegezou resembles a small man covered in
black and white fur. It is said to be a tree climber, but often stands
on the ground in a bipedal stance.

In the 1980s, a photograph of the Bondegezou was sent to Australian
research scientist Tim Flannery, who initially identified the creature
as a young tree kangaroo. But in May, 1994, Flannery conducted a
wildlife survey of the area and discovered that the animal in the
picture was new to science. The Dingiso (Dendrolagus mbaiso), as the
creature is also known, is a forest-dwelling marsupial with bold
coloration that spends most of its time on the ground. The Dingiso
remains a rare sight – the first real evidence of the creature was only
skins, and to this day, no Dingiso exists in captivity.

Mountain Gorilla

For centuries, tales of large “ape-men” in East Africa have
captivated explorers and natives alike. Numerous tribes have legends of
massive, hairy creatures that would kidnap and eat humans, overpowering
them with their ferocity and strength. The creatures go by many names,
among them ngila, ngagi, and enge-ena. In the sixteenth century, English
explorer Andrew Battel spoke of man-like apes that would visit his
campfire at night, and in 1860, explorer Du Chaillu wrote of violent,
bloodthirsty forest monsters. Up until the twentieth century, many of
these tales were ignored or discounted.

In 1902, German officer Captain Robert von Beringe shot one of these
“man-apes” in the Virunga region of Rwanda. Bringing it back to Europe
with him, he introduced the world to a new species of ape: the mountain
gorilla (Gorilla Gorilla Beringe, in Beringe’s honor). Today, mountain
gorillas are known to be communal, largely docile herbivores that live
in the Virunga Mountains in Central Africa, and in Bwindi National Park
in Uganda. Mountain gorillas are threatened by poaching and civil
unrest, elusive and often unseen in their activities. No more than 400
remain in the wild today.

One of the earliest written accounts of gorillas may come from Hanno
the Navigator, a Carthaginian explorer who documented his travels along
the African coast in 500 B.C. Hanno describes a tribe of “gorillae”,
roughly meaning “hairy people”. It is unknown whether Hanno referred to
gorillas, another species of ape, or humans. Nevertheless, his
description served as the inspiration for the modern name “gorilla”.

Kangaroo

Early explorers to Australia described bizarre creatures never before
seen by Europeans. They wrote of creatures with heads like deer that
stood upright like men and hopped like frogs. The creatures sometimes
sported two heads – one on their shoulders, and one on the stomach. Such
accounts were understandably disregarded and ridiculed by fellow
colleagues.

That changed in the 1770s, when a dead specimen of this odd beast was
exhibited in England as a public curiosity. Today, this creature is
known as the kangaroo, a widespread marsupial endemic to Australia.
Well-known for their leaping abilities and the female pouch for carrying
young (marsupium), kangaroos are a nationally recognized icon of
Australia. Four species of kangaroo exist: the Red Kangaroo (Macropus
rufus), the Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), the Western Grey
Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus), and the Antilopine Kangaroo (Macropus
antilopinus).

Platypus

When European naturalists first encountered this bizarre creature,
they were understandably baffled. Accounts described it as a venomous,
egg-laying mammal with a duck bill and beaver tail. Many prominent
British scientists deemed it a hoax when presented with a sketch and
pelt, in 1798. Even when offered a corpse, scholars suspected that it
was an elaborate, sewn-together fraud.

Today, this bizarre but fascinating creature is known as the
platypus, one of only five extant monotremes (egg-laying mammals). While
formerly recognized by science, it is no less unique today: this
semi-aquatic creature, native to eastern Australia, swims with webbed
feet, uses electrolocation to hunt, and possesses an ankle spur that, in
males, can deliver a powerful injection of venom. While non-lethal to
humans, this venom is excruciatingly painful and is not responsive to
most pain-killers.

Thylacine AKA Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf

The
Tasmanian wolf was once a legend in the minds of explores discovering
new lands hearing tails of this strange creature by natives before it
was officially recognized. The
Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times.
It had become extremely rare on the Australian mainland before European
settlement of the continent, but it survived on the island state of
Tasmania along with several other endemic species, including the
Tasmanian Devil. Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties is generally
blamed for its extinction, but other contributory factors may have been
disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its
habitat. Despite its official classification as extinct, sightings are
still reported.

Cryptid Plants
Cryptobotany is the study of various exotic plants which are not believed to exist by the scientific community, but which exist in myth, literature or unsubstantiated reports.

Man-eating tree can refer to any of various legendary or cryptid carnivorous plants that are large enough to kill and consume a person or other large animal.

The Ya-te-veo

The Ya-te-veo is said to be a carnivorous plant that grows in parts of Central and
South America with cousins in Africa and on the shores of the Indian
Ocean. There are many different descriptions of the plant, but most reports
say it has a short, thick trunk and long tendrils of some sort which are
used to catch prey.

Scientifically recognized killer plants!

Nepenthes rajah

The Nepenthes rajahe is the largest known carnivorous plant with the largest known trap.Nepenthes rajah, which produces pitchers up to 38 cm (15 in) tall with a volume of up to 3.5 litres (0.77 imp gal; 0.92 US gal). This species traps small mammals.

Carnivorous Algae

Think before you swim! In Denmark, scientists have discovered a type of algae which feeds on animals thousands of times bigger than itself! The algae have the means to locate their
soon-to-be food by certain chemical traces in the water. Once located,
the killer algae attack using a highly potent nerve poison which that
paralyzes the prey. After the animal is still, they use an adaptive
organ, similar to the mosquito “trunk” to suck all of the nutrients out
of the poor animal.

This type of algae has been considered to have the
capacity to attack as a group, turning the status from plant, to animal,
since they no longer use just photosynthesis to survive. Once the nutrients come out of the prey, the algae swarm around it, and devour the animal rapidly! The algae then grow in size after it's meal. After awhile you have a massive killer, lurking in the waters!

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